The Osceola times., 1887-04-16
ITALIAN CHILDREN.
The Work of Educating Them in
Now York City.

"What have you had for breakfast,
children? How many will tell mep'
About twenty title hands were raised
in response to the question. what
did you have, Nita?" Rice" an
swcrcd bright-faced, dark-eyed little
girl. What else9n continued the
principal. Nothing" answered Nita,
the smile fading fr m her cheek.
what did You have. Titos' Coffee
and bread and butter" answered Tito.
with certain pride, "How many had
coffee aud bread and butter?" About
n dozen raised their hands. "How
many of you had any meat'n Only two
hands came up. ''How many of you
had any meat for dinncr?n Again only
few hands were raised, except among
those who had stayed in the school for
their lunch and been given a simple
meat porridge. "How many had mac
aroni?n Here quitea number of hands
were raised. "Ioy many had beer3"
Several of the boys raised their hands
quite high, but most of the girls kept
theirs down. That will do. children"
said the principal, and, turning to the
Italian teacher, she asked: "How
many do you suppose did have beer for
dinncr?" "All of them, i guess" was
the reply.
One of the Italian teachers took my
self and friend TO visit some of the
homes in the ncighborhood. The school
is one maintained by the Childrcn's
Aid Society on Leonard street, and lies
not far from the Tombs on one side and
Five Points on the other. We pushed
up Chatham street, ignoring the "bar-
gains which were offered and almost
forced upon us by the Jews on the side
walk. Once my curiosity led me to
stop and ask the price Of a gorgeous
looking overcoat, with plpated lining
and flaming red silk sleeves. Five
dollars" was the answer, and the
dealer grabbed hold Of my wrist and
tried to pull me into his shop. !
wrcnched my hand away, and, on join
ing my companions, was told that ii
was an ordinary thing for a curious
passcr-by to be dragged into the shops
and receive rough handling in case he
refused to purchase any thing. One of
the Judges on the New York bench is
reported to have had this experience
quite recently. Pushing on little
further, we were offered another over
coat, much like its predecessor in glo-
~, but having blue 81 k sleeve Innings
instead of red When / was out Of
grabbing distance of the vender asked
him if his price was five dollars. 1.-TWO
and half, was the response.
Turning into - street, we found
the sidewalks and cutters lined with
stands, where cheap fruit, groceries,
stale bread, knickknacks, gewgaws,
etc, etc, were for sale. Those who
managed the stands were. in general,
women, and their stands were often no
stands at all. but n few baskets ranged
alongside of the houses or along the
curbstones. Those ,elling, and those
buying, and those Qhe vast majority
who were a:mlcssly struggling along
and lettering here and there. were all
of the same diminutive, dark complex
ioncd race. Some of them resemble
Jews, but they were not Jews. In
turning the corner we had passed from
Palestine into Italy.
| could not at first understand why
there should be such perfect crowds of
men apparently out of employment.
My companion explained it by saying
that this was the region Of Italian
hotels and boarding houses, and that
the employers kept their gangs" here
while waiting for new contracts.
Entering into narrow court, we saw
heaps Of rags aud old papers. and lot
of wretched-looking people engaged in
sorting them. Going into the house,
we were ushcred into basement room
occupied by family whose children
were supposed to attend the Italian
school. Two beds, one over the other,
few chairs, an excuse for table, and
small stove constituted the only fur
niture. There was no carpet, and there
were no pictures. We found the room
was occupied, not only by the family.
but also by two boarders! The Italian
woman told the teacher that she paid
$3.50 month rent. The teacher
thought that this was quite probable.
Bidding adeu to the landlady of this
boarling-house, we stepped into the
room across the hall, and found il like
the one we had just left. except that
there was n stitch of carpet. and that
there were three beds instead of two.
We found that eight people occupied
this room. A bed was made on the
floor for the children.
Going into - street, we went back
into anothsr narrow court much dir